People's Choice Winner: Cosmic Web

Carol Prusa, MFA, professor of painting and drawing, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
This domed painting with internal light, 60 x 60 x 10 inches, made of silverpoint and acrylic, names 14 women astronomers, like Henrietta Leavitt, who, "mapped the heavens," and contributed knowledge that changed our view of our universe. Bio-referencing forms, which are poetic forms that allude to biology, rim the center like embryos at the indifferent stages (neither male nor female) and coalesce to form a collaborative web of what is known. The mapping lines of light express desire to understand what we are made of and our location. This painting is offered as homage to the scientists who stand at the threshold of what is known while peering into the vastness of the unknown.